Rodney Childers recalls Dale Earnhardt Jr. being clueless over 'throwing eggs' story 

During a recent interview, Rodney Childers opened up on his friendship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. A championship-winning crew chief, Childers has been a part of the NASCAR garage for multiple decades now and achieved a lot of success over the years.

Amid all the stock-car success, a story or aspect of his life that went relatively unnoticed is the fact that he attended high school with Dale Earnhardt Jr. In a Kenny Conversations episode shared on January 8, Kenny Wallace brought this up and asked Childers if people were aware of him attending the same high school as the 2014 Daytona 500 winner.

In response, Rodney said:

"Not many. We don't just put it out there all the time. He wanted me to do that Dale Jr. Download one time and we got to talk and all kinds of stories and I started telling some of them and he didn't even remember like throwing eggs all night one night and doing this and that. He's like, 'I don't think I remember that.' But you know, we've only talked about it on the air that one time. We were good friends growing up and we still are good friends," Childers said [25:30].

The 48-year-old further mentioned how he and Dale Jr. reunited for late model races again. He also said that the latter's involvement alongside Kevin Harvick in the CARS Tour ownership was one of the factors behind them reconnecting again.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. once called Rodney Childers' move away from SHR as 'a missed opportunity' for others

In 2024, Stewart Haas Racing announced that the entire organization would be shutting down at the end of the year. Because of this, Rodney Childers, the crew chief of the #4 team, had to find another job for 2025, prompting him to take on the role as the new crew chief of the #7 team at Spire Motorsports.

However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believed that Childers going to Spire was a big opportunity missed for Richard Childress Racing. He deemed Childers' Spire move a 'missed opportunity' for other teams, as he further singled out RCR and said (as quoted by On3):

"Imagine if he had went to RCR with Kyle Busch. Imagine that pairing, Rodney and Kyle together, Kyle wins races, I think gets back to Victory Lane with Rodney. Even Rodney taking [Andy] Petree’s spot over there as sort of the technical director. I think technical director would have been a great hire."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. emphasized that Rodney Childers not ending up in RCR was something they could regret as the team has been experiencing a slump in recent years, and the former SHR crew chief's presence could've helped turned things around for the North Carolina based outfit.